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Romain Grosjean
French |years = - |teams = Renault, Lotus F1 |first gp = 2009 European Grand Prix |entries = 45 (45 starts) |wins = 0 |pole positions = 0 |fastest laps = 1 |podiums = 9 |career points = 228 |final race = 2013 Brazilian Grand Prix}}Romain Grosjean (born April 17, 1986 in Geneva, Switzerland) is a racing driver, who holds dual nationality from France and Switzerland, but competes under a French racing licence. He was the 2007 Formula Three Euroseries drivers' champion and the inaugural GP2 Asia Series champion and drove in Formula One in 2009. In 2012, Grosjean returned to Formula One with the Lotus F1 Team. He took his first podium in Formula One at the 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix and took his first fastest lap in the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix. He became the first driver since 1994 to receive a race ban after causing a multi-car pile up at the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix. In 2013 he remained with Lotus, taking 6 podiums. Biography Pre-Formula One Grosjean was born in Geneva, Switzerland. He won all ten rounds of the 2003 Swiss Formula Renault 1.6 championship and moved to the French Formula Renault championship for 2004. He was seventh in that first season with one win and champion in 2005 with ten victories. Grosjean also appeared in the Formula Renault Eurocup and finished on the podium twice in Valencia. With his results and potential in the Formula Renault series, Romain joined the Renault Driver Development programme for the continuation of his career. Grosjean made his F3 debut at the demanding Macau Guia Circuit, standing in for Loïc Duval at Signature-Plus. He qualified 19th and raced to ninth. He did a full season in the Formula Three Euroseries in 2006 but had a tough year, taking only one podium finish and ending the year 13th. Grosjean drove for ART in the inaugural GP2 Asia Series season alongside Stephen Jelley, winning both races of the first round of the championship. He went on to win the championship with four race victories and sixty-one points overall. He stayed with ART Grand Prix team for the 2008 GP2 Series season. He finished the season fourth and achieved the distinction of being the highest-placed rookie in the championship. Romain Grosjean 2008 GP2 Silverstone.jpg|Grosjean competing in GP2 during 2008 Formula One 2008-09 Grosjean was confirmed as Renault's test driver for 2008, replacing Nelson Piquet, Jr., who graduated to a race seat. He drove a Formula One car for the first time at the UK round of the 2008 World Series by Renault weekend at Silverstone on June 7 and June 8, 2008, where he gave a number of demonstrations of the previous year's R27 car. He initially continued in the test driver role at Renault for 2009, but took over Piquet's seat from the European Grand Prix onwards in the wake of the Crashgate controversy. Grosjean qualified 14th and finished 15th in the race after a first lap collision with Luca Badoer necessitated a stop for a new front wing. For the next round in Belgium Grosjean qualified 19th, which he blamed on traffic and yellow flags. In the race he was eliminated on the first lap after a collision with Jenson Button. At the Italian Grand Prix, Grosjean qualified a career best 12th, but made a poor start, damaged his car with contact at the first corner, spun on the second lap, and finished 15th. He described himself as "very disappointed" after the race. At the Singapore Grand Prix, Grosjean qualified 19th after suffering brake problems. He was hopeful of making progress in the race, but the brake problems reappeared, forcing him to retire after just three laps. At the Japanese Grand Prix, Grosjean qualified 18th, which he blamed on rain throughout practice preventing him from fully learning the demanding Suzuka Circuit, which he had never driven on before. He was promoted to 17th due to Timo Glock being unable to start the race. He was unable to make progress in the race, finishing 16th after strugling with understeer throughout the race on the unfamiliar circuit. At the Brazilian Grand Prix he qualified 13th in a repaired car, gained positions at the start, but then slipped back down to 13th after complaining of grip and tyre temperature problems, his best result of the season. At the season ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Grosjean qualified 19th, and finished 18th and last. He said afterwards that he had "learnt an enormous amount this year, especially being team mate to Fernando". He finished the season in 23rd place with 0 points. After the end of the season news reports had doubts that Grosjean would keep his seat into 2010. Romain Grosjean 2009 Europe.jpg|Grosjean at the 2009 European GP Time out On 31 January 2010 Renault confirmed that Grosjean's former GP2 team mate at the Addax Team, Vitaly Petrov would be the team's second driver alongside Robert Kubica for the 2010 season leaving Grosjean without a Formula One drive for 2010. In March 2010, Grosjean secured a drive in the inaugural FIA GT1 World Championship, driving a Ford GT1 for the Matech Competition team alongside German driver Thomas Mutsch. In June 2010, Grosjean made his debut in the famous Le Mans 24 Hours endurance race, sharing a Ford GT1 with Mutsch and Jonathan Hirschi. After qualifying third in the LMGT1 class, they were forced to retire from the race after 171 laps. In June 2010, Grosjean made a return to single-seaters, racing for the DAMS team in the third round of the Auto GP season at Spa-Francorchamps. After dominating practice and taking pole position, he won the feature race before finishing second to Carlos Iaconelli in the sprint event. On 20 July 2010, Grosjean announced that he would return to GP2 with the DAMS team. He replaced the then Renault test driver Jérôme d'Ambrosio for the German round of the championship. He later substituted for D'Ambrosio's injured team-mate, Ho-Pin Tung. Grosjean returned to GP2 full-time with DAMS for the 2011 GP2 Series and 2011 GP2 Asia Series seasons. He took two pole positions and one race victory to win the Asia Series by six points from Jules Bianchi, followed by winning the main series later in the year, becoming the first – and as of December 2014, only – two-time GP2 Asia champion and the only driver to hold both the GP2 Asia series and main GP2 series titles simultaneously. R Grosjean Monza 2011.jpg|Grosjean competing in GP2 during 2011 Return to Formula One 2011 At the start of 2011, Grosjean returned to the newly branded Lotus Renault GP team as one of five test drivers along with Bruno Senna, Ho-Pin Tung, Jan Charouz and Fairuz Fauzy. In late October 2011, Lotus Renault announced that Grosjean would drive in the Friday practice session in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (replacing Senna) and the Brazilian Grand Prix (replacing Petrov). On 9 December 2011, it was announced that Grosjean would make his comeback to Formula One in 2012, taking the second seat at the newly renamed Lotus F1 Team (formerly Renault, the team that Grosjean raced with in 2009) alongside 2007 World Champion Kimi Räikkönen. Grosjean fp1 2011.jpg|Grosjean during FP1 at the 2011 Abu Dhabi GP 2012 At the Australian Grand Prix, Grosjean set the second fastest time in the final free practice session, and while team-mate Räikkönen was eliminated in the first part of qualifying, Grosjean made it into the top ten – for the first time, as his previous best was twelfth place – and ultimately qualified in third position. He fell to sixth at the start and retired on the second lap after a collison with Pastor Maldonado, which broke his right-front suspension. At the 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix he finished third, collecting his first Formula One podium and the first for a French driver since Jean Alesi at the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix. In Spain Grosjean started third, finished fourth and set his first fastest lap in Formula One; the first for a French driver since Jean Alesi at the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix. At the 2012 Canadian Grand Prix, he collected his second F1 podium with a career best finish of 2nd, behind Lewis Hamilton. At the Hungarian Grand Prix, Grosjean qualified second, the first time a French Formula One driver had started on the front row of the grid since Jean Alesi at the 1999 French Grand Prix. At Spa Grosjean caused a multicar pile-up at the start of the race, with Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Sergio Pérez all eliminated from the race as well as Grosjean, the incident was started when Grosjean drove into Hamilton on the approach to the La Source corner. Grosjean was given a one race ban post-race (the first driver to be banned since Michael Schumacher in 1994), as well as a fine of €50,000, with the FIA saying in a statement "The stewards regard this incident as an extremely serious breach of the regulations, which had the potential to cause injury to others. It eliminated leading championship contenders from the race. The stewards note that the team conceded the action was an extremely serious mistake and an error of judgement. Neither the team nor the driver made any submission in mitigation of penalty." He was replaced for the 2012 Italian Grand Prix by Lotus test and reserve driver Jérôme d'Ambrosio. His team boss, Éric Boullier said that Grosjean learned an important lesson following his ban, however just one Grand Prix later Grosjean crashed into Mark Webber at the first corner with the Australian branding him a "first lap nutcase". Grosjean's actions have been condemned by many drivers in the paddock. At Abu Dhabi Grosjean was involved in another first lap incident. Gorsjean finished the season in 8th place with a total of 96 points and 3 podiums. Grosjean1-lg.jpg|Grosjean at the 2012 Hungarian GP Grosjean crash belgium 2012.jpg|Grosjean's crash at the 2012 Belgian GP 2013 On 17 December 2012, it was confirmed to Grosjean would stay at Lotus for the 2013 season. He had three points-scoring finishes at the three opening races before receiving a new chassis to help his chances at Bahrain; he qualified 11th and climbed to third. At the next race in Spain, his suspension failed on lap 9. This was followed by another retirement at Monaco and two non points finishes at Canada and Britain. At the German Grand Prix after qualifying 5th he led the race for a while and seemed to be on a faster pace than Sebastian Vettel but the intervention of the safety car changed the race. He was forced to let his team mate Kimi Räikkönen pass towards the end of the race as Räikkönen had faster tyres. Grosjean resisted Fernando Alonso to earn his second podium of the season as Vettel went on to win the race and Räikkönen came second. Grosjean recorded points finishes at the next three races followed by a retirement at Singapore. Grosjean then secured three podium finishes in a row at Korea, Japan and India. At the United States Grand Prix, Grosjean had a good qualifying session and earned a 3rd spot on the grid behind the two Red Bull drivers, Vettel and Webber. On race day Grosjean had once again a strong start by overtaking Webber and nearly Vettel. By pitting last he even led one lap. He finished 2nd by holding off Webber behind him right until the end despite numerous overtaking attempts using the DRS by the Australian. Grosjean ended the season in 7th place with a total of 132 points. Grosjean usa 2013.jpg|Grosjean at the 2013 United States GP Helmet Design Grosjean 2009 helmet.gif|2009 design Grosjean 2012 helmet.gif|2012 design Grosjean 2013 helmet.gif|2013 design Complete Formula One results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) References #https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romain_Grosjean #http://www.statsf1.com/en/romain-grosjean.aspx Category:Drivers Category:French Drivers Category:Lotus F1 Drivers Category:Renault F1 Drivers